We all know that in less than a week, MLB would typically be celebrating Jackie Robinson Day where everyone wears #42 to represent the legendary and brave Jackie Robinson for breaking the color barrier.
I will be showing off an incredible card for that day, but here is a sneak peak at just a boring manurelic I grabbed in the past few months.
It has been mentioned that Roberto Clemente may one day have his number "21" retired across all of baseball for what he meant to Latin American players. Clemente was the first Latin player to collect 3,000 hits and the first Latin player to enter the Hall of Fame. The discussion and links to the petition to Retire 21 can be found here.
On Pirates.com it was discussed that the two best player choices to have their number retired are Dave Parker (39) and Andrew McCutchen (22).
Chad Kuhl currently wears #39 and Pirates former closer Jason Grilli wore the number as recently as 2014.
When Andrew McCutchen was traded in 2018, no one was assigned #22 to begin the 2018 season. The Pirates were surprisingly making a push for the postseason that same year and made a shocking trade for Chris Archer at the deadline. Archer wore #22 while in Tampa Bay and even has his Twitter handle with 22 in it. He respectfully declined to get 22 when he came to the Steel City noting that number belongs to Cutch and should be retired one day.
It was also suggested that maybe Chuck Tanner gets his jersey (7) retired next because he was the manager of the 1979 World Series Champions.
Personally I think Cutch does get his number retired in Pittsburgh because of what he meant to the city and community. He adopted the city as much as the city adopted him.
Which player for your favorite team do you think gets their number retired next?
Should MLB retire 21 across the league to pay tribute to Roberto Clemente?
